Jailed journalist remains under indictment
Published 1:19 pm Saturday, July 16, 2016
- Journalist Mark Thomason was arrested in a rural north Georgia county after making an open records request. Submitted photo.
He was wrong.
Fannin Focus Publisher Mark Thomason now must face another judge, senior Judge Richard Winegarden, who has refused the call to drop all charges.
Thomason will have his day in court Monday, July 18.
Thomason said Saturday, “I’m anxiously awaiting my hearing before Judge Winegarden. I just had to report for drug test No. 6 this morning and am ready for these bond conditions to be lifted and report back to work without any restrictions.”
The bond conditions, he said, have hampered his ability to run his newspaper and have been cumbersome.
Among those conditions are repeated drug tests and an order keeping him away from county offices, where he covers county government for the newspaper he runs.
Chief Judge of the Appalachian Judicial Circuit Brenda Weaver had pressed charges against Thomason after he had requested spending records of government accounts under her control, creating a media firestorm. After open government advocates, including the Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, The Georgia First Amendment Foundation and the Georgia Press Association condemned Weaver’s actions, she requested all charges be dropped.
This week, Thomason learned there would still be a hearing to determine whether the court would pursue attempted identify fraud, identity fraud and making a false statement charges.
Thomason had filed an open records request with county government for copies of checks written from the county’s general fund account and coded to Judge Weaver’s courtroom expenses.
Back in early 2015 Thomason said he had gotten wind of another local judge using racial slurs in open court. He requested audio files of the court proceedings. A court reporter rebuffed his requests for the tapes. Thomason then filed a lawsuit in an effort to obtain the audio tapes and the court reporter’s transcripts. In turn, the court reporter filed a defamation suit against Thomason.
The court reporter had also petitioned the court to have Thomason pay her attorney’s fees. While the lawsuits were dismissed, and her request to have attorney’s fees paid was denied, Thomason got another tip that the court reporter’s legal expenses were paid out of public funds, viz. Judge Weaver’s court expense funds that are paid out of the Fannin County General Fund Budget. That’s when Thomason made the open records request for the checks.
At Weaver’s request, the district attorney signed off on an indictment, Thomason was arrested and jailed overnight. When bond was posted he was required to sign a bond condition statement that stipulates that he and no member of his staff can be within 200 yards of a list of potential witnesses all of whom work at the county offices and courthouse, effectively meaning his publication cannot cover county government, that he must submit to regular drug testing and that his home, car and office can be searched at anytime without a warrant.
Despite the fact Weaver called for dismissal of the charges July 7, Thomason is still under felony indictment and must appear in Pickens County Superior Court Monday afternoon.
The Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists said its members made telephone calls urging Winegarden to sign the order dropping the charges against Thomason. The SPJ statement said, “The judge said he was irritated with all of the calls he was receiving. He was irritated that we were asking him to do his job and correct this injustice.”
Zachary is the editor of the Valdosta, Georgia Daily Times.